DRINKING WATER

mueller-AMI Success Roadmap For Advanced Metering Infrastructure Installations

For a water utility of any size to function properly, effective meter reading is a vital aspect of day-to-day operations. Meter reading supports both ends of the transaction, ensuring that water is being properly delivered, accounted for and billed each month.

DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS

  • Achieving Better Balance In The Water-Energy-Climate Nexus

    Trying to balance urban population growth against water scarcity, energy consumption, and greenhouse gases (GHGs) can feel like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Fortunately, a recent report quantifying that delicate balance offers new perspective on solutions for water professionals.

  • 5+1/2 Keys To Ozone Disinfection Success

    Ozone disinfection of water has been a common practice for nearly 100 years.

  • Integrated Treatment System For Drinking Water

    Amiad designed and supplied an integrated water filtration system for Dominica Island which combines three main stages of filtration and treatment, solving a problem: lack of quality drinking water.

  • Shifting Paradigms: How Proactive Strategies Are Revolutionizing Pipeline Management

    Proactive pipeline maintenance helps utilities address limited resources and aging infrastructure while maximizing return on investment, improving service quality, and building stronger support from customers and stakeholders.

  • Almost 400 AMERICAN Flow Control® Valves And Hydrants With ALPHA™ Restrained Joints Installed In Pennsylvania

    What’s better than one AMERICAN Flow Control® valve or hydrant with an ALPHA™ restrained joint end? How about almost 400? The Houtzdale Municipal Authority is installing more than 300 resilient wedge gate valves with ALPHA restrained joint ends and almost 60 American-Darling® B-62-B fire hydrants with ALPHA bases as part of the water authority’s distribution replacement project. Work began June 2019 and is expected to be completed June 2020.

  • Drinking Water Treatment - Coquitlam Water Treatment Plant, British Columbia

    In 2005, in response to changes to the Canadian Drinking Water Quality guidelines, the Greater Vancouver Water District Board approved a proposal to upgrade the Coquitlam WTP with UV treatment technology to act as the primary means of inactivation.

  • Case Study: Improving RO Performance

    The client's reverse osmosis system utilized coagulants, antiscalants and cleaners to produce high quality water. With the current chemicals, the reverse osmosis system was cleaned every 90 days due to scaling or deposits.

  • Theoretical Operation Of High-Efficiency Ultraviolet Water Treatment Chamber

    The NeoTech Aqua ReFleX™ water purification chambers are the most efficient and compact units available today. They require an order of magnitude less energy and less than 25% of the system volume to achieve the same or better purification result as competing chambers. This is the first in a series of three white papers explaining the benefits of these systems. By J. R. Cooper, Ph.D, NeoTech Aqua Solutions, Inc.

  • Cut Your Fear Of Oversized Pipe Leaks Down To Size

    For many water and wastewater professionals, the fear of piping system leaks escalates in proportion to the size and the age of the pipe. Fortunately, custom fabrication flexibility in tried-and-true bell joint leak clamp (BJLC) designs can satisfy applications far beyond their original intent.

  • Empowering Smarter Decisions With Pipeline Data

    Through case studies and technical insights, this paper demonstrates how utilities can use inspection tools, valve assessments, structural modeling, and predictive analytics to make informed decisions.

DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES

  • Application Note: YSI Water Quality Monitoring Buoys Help Connecticut DOT Protect The Housatonic River
    12/27/2005
    When replacement of the Sikorski Bridge spanning the Housatonic River was authorized, Paul Corrente and the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CT-DOT) set about the design and development of a water quality monitoring program to monitor the contractor’s in-water activities to insure full protection of the river from perturbation
  • 'TOTEX' Is Key When Purchasing Instrumentation
    4/29/2021

    There’s a lot to be considered in the price tag of an ultrasonic instrument. Derek Moore from Siemens explains how the historical way of thinking only of capital costs needs to change to the more holistic approach of total expenditures.

  • Municipal Real-Time Water Quality Monitoring
    9/24/2020

    We arm municipalities with actionable data necessary to make informed decisions about water quality in their communities

  • The Basics: ORP and Free Chlorine Monitoring
    5/13/2014

    Oxidation Reduction Potential or Redox is the activity or strength of oxidizers and reducers in relation to their concentration. Oxidizers accept electrons, reducers lose electrons. Examples of oxidizers are: chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, bromine, ozone, and chlorine dioxide. Examples of reducers are sodium sulfite, sodium bisulfate and hydrogen sulfide. Like acidity and alkalinity, the increase of one is at the expense of the other.

  • Fountain Testing Solutions
    10/29/2021

    Accurate fountain (dampening) solution concentration control is essential for consistent, high-quality results in lithography. Low concentration can cause drying on the non-image area of the plate resulting in tinting, scumming, blanket piling, etc. High concentrations, on the other hand, bring about over-emulsification of the ink. This results in weakening of color strength and changes in ink rheology (body and flow properties). Correct concentration will allow the non-image areas of the plate to be appropriately wetted.

  • Bottled Water Industry: Liquid Analytical Solutions
    11/10/2013

    Americans consume more than 9.1 billion gallons of bottled water annually - an average of twenty nine gallons per person every year. 

  • Reduced Bore Electromagnetic Flowmeter
    10/29/2021

    Being able to accurately measure both the quantity and rate of water passing through a water distribution system is crucial to gain an informed understanding of overall efficiency. As such, achieving a measurement that is exact as possible can have a significant impact on key areas. This includes supply planning, maintenance, resource deployment, leakage detection and the overall environment.

  • (E)-2-Nonenal In Beer
    4/5/2015

    Numerous compounds contribute to changes in beer flavor as it becomes stale. One of these compounds, (E)-2-nonenal, has been investigated as a major source of the papery/cardboard flavor that develops in aged beer.

  • Application Note: Water Flows From The Golden Hills Of California
    1/20/2010
    Each morning John Johnson drives the few miles from his smalltown home in northern California to the Center at Pardee Reservoir. Nestled among the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, the reservoir is a long 100 miles away from San Francisco Bay. By YSI
  • MEGA-STOP Bell Protection System Aids In Pipe Joint Assembly
    4/13/2021

    Water and wastewater piping come in a variety of materials, joints, and diameters. They can meet a multitude of demands and needs for the country's infrastructure.

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

The ORION® Migratable endpoint (ME) is a two-way water endpoint for mobile applications, delivering meter reading data and status information to power the BEACON® AMA Mobile (AMR) solution.

De Nora offers reliable, robust and proven ozone solutions to ensure peace of mind, backed by extensive global experience.

The original OptiFiber® pile cloth media is specifically engineered for water and wastewater applications and designed to maximize solids removal over a wide range of particle sizes. Deep, thick, pile fibers capture particles for the most effective depth filtration.

The patented U.S. Pipe TY-CON Conductive Gaskets are for use in Ductile-Iron pipe and fittings provided with the time proven TYTON JOINT®, and HDSS® restrained joint. TY-CON gaskets are intended to provide pipe joint conductivity for thawing service connections in cold climates.

iPERL+ redefines water metering, offering an integrated solution that not only ensures seamless system compatibility but also maintains unmatched accuracy in water usage measurement for your utility. With enhanced data logging capabilities and a choice between polymer and metal flow tube casings, iPERL+ is tailored to meet the unique needs of your utility.

Aclara’s water pressure monitoring solution leverages industry-leading Aclara RF network to provide near real-time monitoring of water pressure throughout your distribution network.

LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER

  • As water systems grow more complex and climate patterns shift, Legionella is emerging as one of the most persistent and underestimated risks in the built environment. The threat to public health from Legionnaires' disease will likely further escalate unless decisive action is taken.

  • The city of Jackson faced a water crisis that went beyond the tap. What began as an ambitious plan to modernize its water metering infrastructure in 2014 became a logistical and financial nightmare, costing the city millions in lost revenue and declining public trust. Metering as a Service (MaaS) offered the city an alternative option.

  • There has been an abundance of funding available to address the estimated 9.2 million lead service lines currently deliver drinking water to homes, businesses, schools, and unsuspecting citizens throughout the United States. So it is disheartening to realize that millions of lead water lines are still delivering water to citizens.
  • This Q&A follows the Webinar: Beaverton's New AMI Solution Checks Every Box: Operations, Billing, Service, & Savings hosted by Water Online on October 21, 2025. The webinar featured the leadership team from Beaverton Water Division as they discussed lessons learned across operations, billing, and customer service, offering a 360-degree perspective on implementing and managing an AMI system.

  • Amid the AI-fueled gold rush, more leaders are beginning to pay attention to the short- and long-term natural resource concerns, especially around all the water needed to keep data centers running.
  • Water pricing often fails to reflect scarcity, quality, or long-term risk, forcing companies to act internally. But this action is not being done in a vacuum. The ripple effect of internal water pricing is bound to impact water utilities, and ultimately, ratepayers and consumers.

DRINKING WATER VIDEOS

The Orange County Water District (OCWD) has long been an innovative leader in indirect potable reuse. An integral component of its Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS) – a 100 million gallon per day advanced water purification facility – is reverse osmosis membrane technology.

New sensor offers continuous monitoring, immediate detection of lead.

Lead poisoning water service lines are turning up around the globe at an alarming rate leaving millions angry. ePIPE's innovative technology creates a new pipe barrier inside the service lines eliminating water contact with the lead service lines.

RIP Kitty Hach-Darrow (October 20, 1922 - June 4, 2020), co-founder of Hach Company

Aqua wants you to know the 411 on lead exposure

ABOUT DRINKING WATER

In most developed countries, drinking water is regulated to ensure that it meets drinking water quality standards. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers these standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

Drinking water considerations can be divided into three core areas of concern:

  1. Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
  2. Drinking water treatment of source water
  3. Distribution of treated drinking water to consumers

Drinking Water Sources

Source water access is imperative to human survival. Sources may include groundwater from aquifers, surface water from rivers and streams and seawater through a desalination process. Direct or indirect water reuse is also growing in popularity in communities with limited access to sources of traditional surface or groundwater. 

Source water scarcity is a growing concern as populations grow and move to warmer, less aqueous climates; climatic changes take place and industrial and agricultural processes compete with the public’s need for water. The scarcity of water supply and water conservation are major focuses of the American Water Works Association.

Drinking Water Treatment

Drinking Water Treatment involves the removal of pathogens and other contaminants from source water in order to make it safe for humans to consume. Treatment of public drinking water is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Common examples of contaminants that need to be treated and removed from water before it is considered potable are microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals and radionuclides.

There are a variety of technologies and processes that can be used for contaminant removal and the removal of pathogens to decontaminate or treat water in a drinking water treatment plant before the clean water is pumped into the water distribution system for consumption.

The first stage in treating drinking water is often called pretreatment and involves screens to remove large debris and objects from the water supply. Aeration can also be used in the pretreatment phase. By mixing air and water, unwanted gases and minerals are removed and the water improves in color, taste and odor.

The second stage in the drinking water treatment process involves coagulation and flocculation. A coagulating agent is added to the water which causes suspended particles to stick together into clumps of material called floc. In sedimentation basins, the heavier floc separates from the water supply and sinks to form sludge, allowing the less turbid water to continue through the process.

During the filtration stage, smaller particles not removed by flocculation are removed from the treated water by running the water through a series of filters. Filter media can include sand, granulated carbon or manufactured membranes. Filtration using reverse osmosis membranes is a critical component of removing salt particles where desalination is being used to treat brackish water or seawater into drinking water.

Following filtration, the water is disinfected to kill or disable any microbes or viruses that could make the consumer sick. The most traditional disinfection method for treating drinking water uses chlorine or chloramines. However, new drinking water disinfection methods are constantly coming to market. Two disinfection methods that have been gaining traction use ozone and ultra-violet (UV) light to disinfect the water supply.

Drinking Water Distribution

Drinking water distribution involves the management of flow of the treated water to the consumer. By some estimates, up to 30% of treated water fails to reach the consumer. This water, often called non-revenue water, escapes from the distribution system through leaks in pipelines and joints, and in extreme cases through water main breaks.

A public water authority manages drinking water distribution through a network of pipes, pumps and valves and monitors that flow using flow, level and pressure measurement sensors and equipment.

Water meters and metering systems such as automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) allows a water utility to assess a consumer’s water use and charge them for the correct amount of water they have consumed.